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Balsa: Learning a Query Optimizer Without Expert Demonstrations

Summary: Balsa uses deep RL to learn a query optimizer without expert demonstrations, from a simple simulator to safe real-execution fine-tuning. On Join Order Benchmark, it matches two expert optimizers after ~2 hours and beats them up to 2.8x with training. (summarized by gpt-5-nano on Feb 09 2026)

Paper ID
hc15b634968a29395
Venue
SIGMOD
Year
2022
Pagerank
0.00011630532
Overall Rank
1,175 | 92.13%
DOI
10.1145/3514221.3517885

Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time

Authors

BibTeX Citation

@inproceedings{yang_sigmod22,
        title = {{Balsa: Learning a Query Optimizer Without Expert Demonstrations}},
        author = {Yang, Zongheng and Chiang, Wei-Lin and Luan, Sifei and Mittal, Gautam and Luo, Michael and Stoica, Ion},
        series = {{SIGMOD} '22},
        booktitle = {Proceedings of the {ACM} {SIGMOD} International Conference on Management of Data},
        publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
        doi = {10.1145/3514221.3517885},
        url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3514221.3517885},
        year = {2022}
}

Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 50 of 60 citing papers.

Rank Citing Paper Year Venue Pagerank
2,190 Lero: A Learning-to-Rank Query Optimizer 2023 VLDB 8.8848923e-05
3,328 Auto-WLM: Machine Learning Enhanced Workload Management in Amazon Redshift 2023 SIGMOD 7.4094448e-05
3,481 LOGER: A Learned Optimizer towards Generating Efficient and Robust Query Execution Plans 2023 VLDB 7.2463722e-05
4,202 Kepler: Robust Learning for Faster Parametric Query Optimization 2023 SIGMOD 6.7258607e-05
4,247 LEON: A New Framework for ML-Aided Query Optimization 2023 VLDB 6.6920059e-05
4,641 How Good are Learned Cost Models, Really? Insights from Query Optimization Tasks 2025 SIGMOD 6.4739208e-05
4,683 AutoSteer: Learned Query Optimization for Any SQL Database 2023 VLDB 6.4545989e-05
4,833 Stage: Query Execution Time Prediction in Amazon Redshift 2024 SIGMOD 6.3834856e-05
5,245 FASTgres: Making Learned Query Optimizer Hinting Effective 2023 VLDB 6.1995935e-05
5,453 Eraser: Eliminating Performance Regression on Learned Query Optimizer 2024 VLDB 6.1077838e-05
5,457 Sample-Efficient Cardinality Estimation Using Geometric Deep Learning 2024 VLDB 6.1058928e-05
5,713 PilotScope: Steering Databases with Machine Learning Drivers 2024 VLDB 6.0090633e-05
5,794 Lemo: A Cache-Enhanced Learned Optimizer for Concurrent Queries 2023 SIGMOD 5.9759435e-05
6,109 Is Your Learned Query Optimizer Behaving As You Expect? A Machine Learning Perspective 2024 VLDB 5.8676956e-05
6,158 Rethinking Learned Cost Models: Why Start from Scratch? 2023 SIGMOD 5.8518237e-05
6,584 Can Large Language Models Be Query Optimizer for Relational Databases? 2026 SIGMOD 5.72395e-05
6,646 Join Order Selection with Deep Reinforcement Learning: Fundamentals, Techniques, and Challenges 2023 VLDB 5.7053761e-05
6,672 Speeding Up End-to-end Query Execution via Learning-based Progressive Cardinality Estimation 2023 SIGMOD 5.6975871e-05
6,725 Simple Adaptive Query Processing vs. Learned Query Optimizers: Observations and Analysis 2023 VLDB 5.6826988e-05
7,092 E2ETune: End-to-End Knob Tuning via Fine-tuned Generative Language Model 2025 VLDB 5.5868637e-05
7,483 T3: Accurate and Fast Performance Prediction for Relational Database Systems With Compiled Decision Trees 2025 SIGMOD 5.5007125e-05
7,561 Learned Offline Query Planning via Bayesian Optimization 2025 SIGMOD 5.4784915e-05
7,941 SlabCity: Whole-Query Optimization using Program Synthesis 2023 VLDB 5.4056478e-05
7,997 The Holon Approach for Simultaneously Tuning Multiple Components in a Self-Driving Database Management System with Machine Learning via Synthesized Proto-Actions 2024 VLDB 5.3938336e-05
8,389 GenJoin: Conditional Generative Plan-to-Plan Query Optimizer that Learns from Subplan Hints 2026 SIGMOD 5.3250456e-05
8,657 LIMAO: A Framework for Lifelong Modular Learned Query Optimization 2025 VLDB 5.2790784e-05
8,989 Conformal Prediction for Verifiable Learned Query Optimization 2025 VLDB 5.2304457e-05
9,011 Improving DBMS Scheduling Decisions with Accurate Performance Prediction on Concurrent Queries 2025 VLDB 5.2238303e-05
9,154 Hit the Gym: Accelerating Query Execution to Efficiently Bootstrap Behavior Models for Self-Driving Database Management Systems 2024 VLDB 5.2050937e-05
9,236 BASE: Bridging the Gap between Cost and Latency for Query Optimization 2023 VLDB 5.1882723e-05
9,583 Athena: An Effective Learning-based Framework for Query Optimizer Performance Improvement 2025 SIGMOD 5.140977e-05
9,662 Low Rank Learning for Offline Query Optimization 2025 SIGMOD 5.1283524e-05
9,691 BladeDISC: Optimizing Dynamic Shape Machine Learning Workloads via Compiler Approach 2023 SIGMOD 5.1258854e-05
9,756 APQO: An Adaptive Framework for Parametric Query Optimization 2026 SIGMOD 5.115551e-05
9,837 NeuSO: Neural Optimizer for Subgraph Queries 2026 SIGMOD 5.1064323e-05
9,935 Approximate Sketches 2024 SIGMOD 5.0941477e-05
9,995 Graph Transformers for Query Plan Representation: Potentials and Challenges 2025 VLDB 5.0845476e-05
10,109 veDB-HTAP: a Highly Integrated, Efficient and Adaptive HTAP System 2025 VLDB 5.0672857e-05
10,318 Towards Full Stack Adaptivity in Permissioned Blockchains 2024 VLDB 5.0258044e-05
10,370 An Elephant Under The Microscope: Analyzing The Interaction Of Optimizer Components In PostgreSQL 2025 SIGMOD 5.0010514e-05
10,392 E-LQO: A Comprehensive Energy Evaluation Framework for Learned Query Optimization 2027 SIGMOD 4.9605343e-05
10,490 Are Learned DBMS Components Robust to Workload Drift?: [Experiments & Analysis] 2026 SIGMOD 4.9605343e-05
10,561 NeurBench: A Benchmark Suite for Learned Database Components with Drift Modeling: [Experiments & Analysis] 2026 SIGMOD 4.9605343e-05
10,566 On Self-Designing Learned Indexes 2026 SIGMOD 4.9605343e-05
10,585 Succinct Structure Representations for Efficient Query Optimization 2026 SIGMOD 4.9605343e-05
10,608 Rainbow: Risk-aware Index Benefit Estimation Facing Out Of Distribution Workloads 2026 SIGMOD 4.9605343e-05
10,668 SEFRQO: A Self-Evolving Fine-Tuned RAG-Based Query Optimizer 2026 SIGMOD 4.9605343e-05
10,705 Divo: Learning a Stable and Effective Query Optimizer with a Diverse Workload 2026 SIGMOD 4.9605343e-05
10,764 Practical Parameterized Query Optimization via Efficient Plan Reuse and List-wise Ranking 2026 SIGMOD 4.9605343e-05
10,769 LIO: A lightweight and interpretable query optimizer based on an evolutionary forest 2026 VLDB 4.9605343e-05
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Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 16 of 16 cited papers.

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